Women’s March on Washington Beats Expectations: Half a Million Descend on Mall

Organizers and city officials were expecting around 200,000 protesters in Washington on Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington. But the turnout surpassed all expectations as the demonstration grew into a more than a half-million–strong force that could turn out to be larger than the crowds that gathered for Donald Trump’s inauguration. The result of this much larger-than-expected crowd was evident to anyone who tried to join using any form of public transportation as trains and subways overflowed with people trying to make it into downtown Washington.

And that’s just in Washington. Organizers say some 3 million people have and will gather around the world to take part in “sister marches.” In Chicago, for example, organizers canceled the march portion of the demonstration after the crowd grew to a much larger-than-expected 150,000 people. “Our march route is flooded. There is no safe way to march. We are just going to sing and dance and make our voices heard here,” rally and march co-chairwoman Ann Scholhmer told the crowd.

Protesters cheer at the Women’s March on Saturday in Chicago.

John Gress/Getty Images

“It’s been a heartrending time to be both a woman and an immigrant in this country. Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday,” actress and activist America Ferrera told the crowd in Washington. “But the president is not America. His Cabinet is not America. Congress is not America. We are.”

Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the Today’s Papers column from 2006 to 2009. Follow him on Twitter.